Honestly about spit my drink out at that chapter title. Confessions of a Mask is the name of Yukio Mishima's second novel. Mishima is a massive cultural figure in post war Japan, he wrote a lot of famous plays, poems, etc. about honor and the importance of tradition, eventually denouncing the westernization of Japan.
His death is pretty famous, involving an attempted coup to overthrow the westernization of Japan and reinstall emporers (he was kinda a fascist). He and his followers stormed the Japanese military headquarters, kidnapped the commandant, and attempted to inspire the soldiers to a coup with a speech and manifesto. He failed, and committed seppuku (notably he wrote a short play glamorizing seppuku, though I can't recall it's name).
Anyway, what's most interesting to me is that Confessions of a Mask, a book widely considered to be veiled autobiography, is the story of a young gay boy growing up and attempting to fit in with the pressures of traditional Japanese culture and masculinity.
I def don't think the queerness of the title is meant to be implied for Yasha, but I see parallels between Yasha and Mishima, with the death of the emporers, Yasha feeling conflicted about it, and also Asura's attempt to seek revenge in the midst of a world that has changed.
I'm now really curious to see where this game story goes. I definitely don't mean to give this silly action anime nonsense too much credit, but also, it's got me paying a bit more attention.
PS I'm far from a Mishima expert, just happened to be fascinated by him back when I was a closet queer growing up.
@jaypb08: if you check their news page it seems like Patrick's is the only list actually posted. I think, as with past years, they plan on rolling them out slowly. I think seeing them all from the new homepage is a display error.
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